two finance guys with one massive problem and an app now valued at $550M
this is the story of paul erlanger and se yong park
> paul started in traditional finance at deutsche bank
> se yong did too
> then both joined dYdX
> spent years watching people struggle with on chain trading
> crypto was powerful but not built for normal people
then they asked
what if trading crypto felt like using a normal app?
> in 2025, both teamed up with prashan dharmasena
> they started building fomo
> the idea was remove the complexity
> one account with multiple chains
> no manual bridging and gas headaches
but they also noticed something bigger
> trading isn't just financial, it's social
> so fomo made trades visible with trading + social media
> also added apple pay option
> suddenly buying crypto didn't feel like crypto
> just download, fund and trade
> the numbers exploded with 120K+ users
> then 600K+
> now 625K+
> $4B+ trading volume
> 110M+ social interactions
> 68K+ people bought crypto for the first time
then investors noticed
> benchmark led a $17M Series A
> and in June 2026, index ventures led
a $75M Series B
> valuation $550M
> their bigger vision is the social layer of finance
sometimes the biggest startup isn't the one creating new technology
it's the one hiding the complexity everyone else accepted
this is the story of paul erlanger and se yong park
> paul started in traditional finance at deutsche bank
> se yong did too
> then both joined dYdX
> spent years watching people struggle with on chain trading
> crypto was powerful but not built for normal people
then they asked
what if trading crypto felt like using a normal app?
> in 2025, both teamed up with prashan dharmasena
> they started building fomo
> the idea was remove the complexity
> one account with multiple chains
> no manual bridging and gas headaches
but they also noticed something bigger
> trading isn't just financial, it's social
> so fomo made trades visible with trading + social media
> also added apple pay option
> suddenly buying crypto didn't feel like crypto
> just download, fund and trade
> the numbers exploded with 120K+ users
> then 600K+
> now 625K+
> $4B+ trading volume
> 110M+ social interactions
> 68K+ people bought crypto for the first time
then investors noticed
> benchmark led a $17M Series A
> and in June 2026, index ventures led
a $75M Series B
> valuation $550M
> their bigger vision is the social layer of finance
sometimes the biggest startup isn't the one creating new technology
it's the one hiding the complexity everyone else accepted